Nick is just one month into being available from more than one major retailer, instead of just Amazon.

What’s really surprising is that he gained traction so fast.

But check out his stats and sales charts. What they demonstrate is quite stunning. Not only did Nick see a ton of new sales from the retailers he’s previously ignored, but he’s also seen a surge in sales ON Amazon itself.

This is the trap so many indies fall into when they chase the shiny bauble and go exclusive with Amazon. because when the Amazon readers tweets and FB’s how they loved your book their friends who are with other retailers are just left out in the cold.

Amazon has dozen ebook stores around the world, and is the biggest player in only a handful. It blocks downloads to vast tracks of the world and surcharges buyers in countries outside the Kindle Zone.

35% of ebooks sold in the USA and Australia are through outlets other than Amazon. 60% of ebooks sold in Germany are through outlets other than Amazon. Upwards of 80% of ebooks sold in India are through outlets other than Amazon.

Amazon should always be major part of any indie’s marketing strategy, but guys, it’s time to stop partying like its 2009.

Amazon isn’t the only show in town anymore, and in mid-2014 its possible to be available in upwards of 250 retail outlets around the world with very little effort or up-front costs.

On Kindle Germany today English-language ebooks are hovering just outside the top 100 in store.

John Green’s English-language version of The Fault In Their Stars – which was in the top 40 in store over on Kindle Brazil yesterday – is at 108, and there are today a total of NINE English-language ebooks in the top 500.

Bear in mind Amazon has only 40% of the German ebook market and other ebook stores in Germany (of which there are too many to count) will also be selling English-language ebooks to eager readers.

In fact many domestic German ebook stores go out of their way to cater for the lucrative English-language ebook market in Germany.

Bild.de is one of the seven Tolino Alliance ebook stores in Germany, all oh which are great places to be selling your English-language titles

Ciando go one step further. They have two central ebook sites – one in German, and one in English.

Ciando is a significant German player and powers a large number of white-label stores across Europe, many of which could be carrying your ebooks.

There are plenty more domestic German ebook stores, and of course the big US retailers are there alongside Amazon – Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and even Nook (albeit only with a Windows 8 app right now). And then there are the smaller international players like Smashwords, Blio, Versent, All-Romance/OmniLit, eBook.com and myriad others who also sell ebooks to Germany.

The German ebook market is just beginning its ascent, so there’s plenty of first-time readers making the transition to digital, and many will be wary and looking for the less-expensive titles.

For this reason the German ebook market is particularly lucrative for savvy indies. German book-pricing rules mean the big publishers – and Amazon – are limited as to how much they can discount. It means trad-pubbed titles are generally a lot more expensive than indie titles – one reason indies dominate the Kindle Germany charts right now.

On several occasions this year the entire Kindle top ten have been indie titles, and as many as half the top 100 ebooks on Kindle Germany have been self-published.

Check out the images Bild choose to use to illustrate their English-language sector.

While most of the world associate English with America nowadays, Germany clearly still understands that the language is called English for a reason. British writers and others who set their works in the UK might find an especially warm welcome among German readers, many of whom will have learned the language on exchange trips to Blighty.

For all these reasons we rank Germany – along with India and Indonesia – as the top three most exciting nascent ebook markets. Countries where savvy indies should be working hard now to sow the seeds for rewards to come as these markets mature.

And for those who do take us seriously with all this (yes, both of you!) here’s our Top Ten Most Exciting Nascent Ebook Market Prospects:

Ebook Bargains UK

Far more than just an ebook promo newsletter.

Far more than just the UK.

On Kindle Germany today English-language ebooks are hovering just outside the top 100 in store.

John Green’s English-language version of The Fault In Their Stars – which was in the top 40 in store over on Kindle Brazil yesterday – is at 108, and there are today a total on NINE English-language ebooks in the top 500.

Bear in mind Amazon has only 40% of the German ebook market and other ebook stores in German stores (of which there are too many to count) will also be selling English-language ebooks to eager readers.

In fact many domestic German ebook stores go out of their way to cater for the lucrative English-language ebook market in Germany.

All seven Tolino stores will be carrying Jim’s and Tom’s ebooks, along with myriad other German ebook stores, all of which love English-language titles because so many German’s enjoy reading in English.

Jim’s not in Ciando (yet) but it’s worth checking out. Ciando is a significant German player and powers a large number of white-label stores across Europe, many of which could be carrying your ebooks.

There are plenty more domestic German ebook stores, and of course the big US retailers are there alongside Amazon – Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and even Nook (albeit only with a Windows 8 app right now). And then there are the smaller international players like Smashwords, Blio, Versent, All-Romance/OmniLit, eBook.com and myriad others who also sell ebooks to Germany.

The German ebook market is just beginning its ascent, so there’s plenty of first-time readers making the transition to digital, and many will be war and looking for the less-expensive titles.

For this reason the German ebook market is particularly lucrative for savvy indies. German book-pricing rules mean the big publishers – and Amazon – are limited as to how much they can discount. It means trad-pubbed titles are generally a lot more expensive than indie titles – one reason indies dominate the Kindle Germany charts right now.

On several occasions this year the entire Kindle top ten have been indie titles, and as many as half the top 100 ebooks on Kindle Germany have been self-published.

I rank Germany – along with India and Indonesia – as the top three most exciting nascent ebooks. Countries where savvy indies should be working hard now to sow the seeds for rewards to come as these markets mature.

And for those who do take me seriously with all this (yes, both of you!) here’s my Top Ten Most Exciting Nascent Ebook Market Prospects.

And ponder this: It’s a very safe bet Grimm’s fairy tales have been translated into Brazilian Portuguese a gazillion times, yet the English language ebook version – released just a few days ago, shot straight into the top 200 in the Kindle Brazil store.

Obviously the sales numbers aren’t anywhere near US and UK Kindle sales for comparable chart position – these are nascent markets and Kindle Brazil is by no means the biggest ebook outlet in Brazil.

But make NO mistake. People ARE reading English language books in countries like Brazil – which is notoriously a one-language country and still way behind the rich west in digital take-up.

For those wondering, the key indie-friendly western retailers in Brazil aside from Amazon are Kobo (via Livraria Cultura), Apple, Google Play, Smashwords and Scribd. Brazilians have plenty of domestic and Latin American ebook store alternatives to choose from too.

We all know romance is a very, very popular genre and many ebooks authors are doing exceptionally well, but we also know most only focus their attention on two countries – the US and UK – and of course therefore only see results from two countries.

We’ve been arguing a long time now that the global market is worth the effort, but very few indies are taking this seriously. We ran a post here back in February stressing the significance of the Indian market for romance writers. Again, it fell on largely deaf ears.

This week there emerged some new data that shows how wrong you are to be ignoring the wider world.

What are the top five countries for romance ebooks? Obviously the US and UK take poll positions.

But in third, fourth and fifth place in order are…drum roll please…India, Australia and South Africa.

And the stores are worth looking at. Obviously it goes without saying Amazon is top, and Apple and Nook close behind. But this report from Epub Direct also cites the following stores as performing well with romance titles.

For the UK, read W H Smith for Kobo, and for Australia Angus & Robertson and Bookworld.

Ebooks.com is an Australian store (the oldest ebook store still going in fact!) that sells in US dollars. Supplied via Ingram.

Sainsbury is off limits to indies, but make no mistake Sainsbury (and lately Tesco – too early for any stats for Blinkbox) are doing very well.

Txtr gets a mention. Remember Txtr has twenty global stores, and you can be sure most of Txtr’s sales are not coming from the Txtr US and Txtr UK sites… Txtr are not in India, which means Txtr sales will be coming from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and mainland Europe. If you are with Smashwords or Ebook Partnership you will be in the Txtr stores.

Flipkart is well up there, of course. See our Valentine’s post to understand why Indians love western romances.

Then there’s small players like Libri, Asia Books and Fishpond that indies just love to write off as a waste of time.

Of course Epub Direct, who compiled this report, supply a ton of other retailers too. In fact they have the best reach of any distributor, including getting titles into the key UK stores WH Smith, Sainsbury and Tesco Blinkbox, all off limits to indies.

No, Epub Direct don’t deal with indies (logistical, not philosophical – they are not anti-indie, just not set up to cater for individuals) but what they don’t know about ebook distribution and selling probably isn’t worth knowing.

If you are with a publisher make sure they know about Epub Direct and (if they are big enough) demand they sign up. For the rest of us… Well, for now they are off limits, but we’re hoping someone from Epub Direct will come and share with us their thoughts on how things migt pan out in the future.

Meanwhile, a few other key points from this report:

Subscription services are performing well for romance. Ditto for libraries except for erotica, where many libraries filter titles or – as with OverDrive and Smashwords – simply don’t want to know.

Romance titles see less blockbusters so the market is far more evenly spread and self-pubbers have a better chance of getting in. Look at any best-seller chart where indies are to see this is true.

Romance titles do well in series and are less affected by seasonal buying, so a good year round bet.

Nor is it just India. Michael Tamblyn, Kobo’s president said this week “For e-book retailers like us, it has helped Romance become a huge part of our business.” As we all know, Kobo is not amajor player in the US, so these sales are coming from elsewhere.

But to finish this post a reminder- India is the third biggest market for English language romance titles according to one of the world’s biggest ebook distributors. And no, you don’t need to write about Indian characters in Indian settings to appeal to Indian readers, as we said in the EBUK post in February, and as the new Epub Direct report shows.